Rainbow Dash rolled up her autographed Wonderbolts poster and crammed it down into the corner of a box otherwise filled to capacity with various Wonderbolts merchandise. She threw her full weight onto it in order to compress its contents down to a point where they matched the volume of the box, then taped it shut and grabbed up a marker to scribble “Wonderbolts Junk” on it. It took a few moments for her to realize that the Rainbow Dash of even a few weeks ago would have socked herself in the nose for treating her prized Wonderbolts collection like that, but she just shrugged and carried on. It’d be ridiculous to act all precious with stuff like a poster that was signed by the ponies she’d be flying with almost every day for the rest of her foreseeable career. The poster didn’t even have the fastest flier in Equestria on it yet, Dash noted with a grin.

As she hefted the box across the room the grin progressed into uncontrollable giggles, and after dropping the box in the corner with the others she had to let out a completely ridiculous, unrestrained squeal for about the seventh time in as many hours since she woke up that morning—much the same as she’d had pretty nearly every day since she’d gotten her acceptance letter into the Wonderbolts.

Still, she caught herself tossing one more glance at the box, and the tiniest bit of nostalgia crept up on her as it struck her that she might never end up unpacking it again. The place she had gotten in Cloudsdale was much smaller than her Ponyville home—sky-space there was many times more costly than it was in Ponyville—and she doubted there’d be room for all of it. There was no way she could bring herself to throw any of it away—there was a good chance it would sit in the box for as long as Dash could think into the future.

That was getting into sentimental territory, though, and Dash had no time for that. Especially with the movers coming for her stuff in two days. Dash glanced around at the things she had left to pack—they all seemed so fiddly and bothersome to deal with at that moment. But if a pony were to break down a day into hours, she reasoned, two days was really quite a good chunk of time. Still not enough time for being sentimental, but lots of time for packing. And she knew just the pegasus to get that packing done—the fastest pegasus that had probably even ever existed—and that pegasus was named Future Dash. Present Dash was already flying out the door.

The sun poured over Present Dash as she flew out into the Ponyville sky. The forecast had called for partial clouds with light showers in the afternoon, but fortunately Past Dash had cleared the sky anyway. It had been her last shift—what were they going to do, fire her?

And clearing the sky had been totally worth it. Ponyville looked as brilliant as it ever had as she swooped down over it. It really was, at that moment, just about the best town she could imagine. She loved Ponyville. At the same time, she knew it was the town that she no longer lived in—but somehow those two thoughts didn’t seem to conflict at all for Dash, and it didn’t cause her so much as a passing worry. Though she was moving away, nothing else was changing about Ponyville. It wasn’t going anywhere, and it’d always be as great as it ever had been.

There was a tug in her gut all the same, and it managed to pull the brilliance of everything down a few notches. Though the town wasn’t going anywhere, one of the ponies in it was. It was true that all her friends would still be there—but “friends” wasn’t quite a word that fit Dash and that pony anymore.

The pegasus found herself landing in front of a large tree in the center of town. The sign on it said “Golden Oaks Library,” and though there was another sign hanging from one of the tree’s windows that said “closed” on it, the tree’s front door was wide open. There was a very large bin of ashes and soot next to several boxes with the tattered remains of books on either side of the door, as well as a ladder leaning against the tree that led up to an entirely unremarkable branch. And there was rather a lot of commotion going on inside for a library or a tree—even were it open.

“Spike! I need another look at checklist three-point-seven!” Dash heard from across the library as she flew through the doorway. She alit and began making her way over to the source, but had to leap back into the air to dodge an enormous stack of books scampering on two dragon legs. As the books passed, the rest of a haggard, disgruntled dragon became visible.

“Well then, you shouldn’t have made me put it away!” said the dragon. “I can’t get it right now!”

“Then hurry up with what you’re doing! I need—Dash!” the librarian pony said as the pegasus swooped in.

“Yeah, you do!” said Dash, landing in front of her. “But really, Twilight—as if you’d ever not need a little Dash!”

“Perfect timing!” said Twilight, keeping her eyes on the steady stream of books as she floated them by in front of her, simultaneously scribbling down notes with a quill and parchment. “Wait, aren’t you packing today? Ah, doesn’t matter—could you go grab everything in the seven-hundred-and-forty-six section that’s still on the shelf?” She waved her hoof vaguely, the gesture encompassing well over half of the library.

“Uh, yeah, all right,” Rainbow said. She took a moment on the way over to feel just a bit embarrassed at the fact that she actually knew what Twilight meant by that. Dash wondered how many other Wonderbolts had been taught the Dewey Decimal system—arguably against their will. As she deftly swept the books off of the shelf and rotated them into a vertical stack in one motion, she figured if the Wonderbolts ever did a routine that involved carrying books, Dash could probably give them a few pointers on that, too. She flew over the stack of books and set them next to Twilight.

“Thanks,” Twilight said, glancing briefly away from the books she was levitating in front of her. “I’m at a bad place to stop here, and Spike managed to lose the ladder.”

“I didn’t lose it—you did!” came Spike’s voice.

“The ladder? You mean the one outside?” asked Dash.

“There’s a ladder outside?” Twilight asked, still focusing on the books and the notetaking. “What did it look like?”

“It’s dark brown and it—wait, how many ladders do you have?”

“Well... just one, actually, but why would it be outside? It could be someone else’s, you know.”

“Whose would it be?” Dash asked, shaking her head and flicking a glance to the ceiling at how much of a knob the studious pony could be. “And I don’t know why it’s there! It was going up to a branch, for some reason!”

“Where was it exactly?” Twilight asked distractedly.

“If you turn your head the tiniest bit to the left, you can see it through that window.”

Twilight finally looked away from the books to flick a distracted glance at Dash, out the window, then back at the books, and her brow furrowed. “That’s the ladder, all right, but why is”—her eyes lit up—“oh, that’s right! I thought it’d save time by bringing the ladder with me when I took those discarded books and letter-waste out—Spike was supposed to prune the tree in a bit.” She smiled sheepishly. “Okay, so I did lose the ladder.”

“I knew it!” Spike said as he came back into the room. “Anyway, I moved those books you wanted. What’s next?”

Twilight floated the stack Dash had gotten and combined it with another large pile, then levitated them all over to be deposited into Spike’s arms. “Take these over to them, too, and—ah! I forgot something else!”

“What?” Spike groaned.

Twilight spun around and briefly touched her lips to Dash’s. “Hello, Dash,” she said brightly, smiling. Spike rolled his eyes and trudged off.

Dash grinned at her lover, then blinked and looked around. “Hey, so—why are you reorganizing the library now, anyway? I thought you weren’t going to Canterlot for over a week.” Her eyebrows fell straight. “Wait, why are you reorganizing the library at all?”

“Well, I thought that the next pony that’s going to take over the library while I’m gone would appreciate a more efficient configuration. I always just knew where everything was, so I opted to arrange it in a way that’s much more of a personal preference than—”

“So—why are doing it now?”

“I have to pack after that! I’m going to be gone for several months! And that’s just for now—the Princess said—”

“You’re going to have to stop calling her ‘the Princess,’ you know.” Rainbow brushed Twilight’s wing with her own.

A bit of colour went to the alicorn’s cheeks. “You’re just as bad as she is.”

“Anyway,” Dash said with a cocky grin, “you should stop doing this. It’s officially my last day as a weather pony. So to celebrate and stuff, let’s go on that trip I was talking about the other day!”

Twilight blinked, and a frown crept up on her as her eyebrow raised. “You said we were going to wait till after you had moved everything out to Cloudsdale before going on that trip.”

Dash rolled her eyes. “No you said we were going to wait till after I had everything moved out. And I’m saying screw that, let’s just go now.”

“But... that’s so sudden! I’m right in the middle of—and you still have to pack! When are—?”

“I’ll do that later! So can you!” Dash said. Twilight opened her mouth to object but Rainbow cut her off. “And I know you’ve scheduled everything with at least a day to spare, so don’t even try that!” Twilight closed her mouth and glanced to the side.

“Okay, but when exactly are you going to pack, then?” Twilight asked, giving the pegasus one out of two. “You said the movers would be here the day after tomorrow!”

“Hey, come on, it’s me! I’ll just cram it all in at the last minute like I always do.”

Twilight held her gaze for a moment, but then smiled. “Yeah, I suppose you will.”

“You totally need a break anyway. I mean, look at your mane!”

Twilight put an annoyed hoof up to her mane. “What? What’s wrong with it?”

“You’ve got that hilarious little sticky-uppy bit going on.”

Twilight groaned. “I hate that ‘sticky-uppy bit.’ ”

“Aw, but it’s funny!” said Dash, grinning, and reached over to flick it with her hoof.

“It really, really is,” said Spike as he passed by the doorway to the room.

Twilight gave a resigned huff. “Fine! I suppose I can pick everything back up tomorrow.” She piled up the books that she had been floating by her.

“All right!” Rainbow pumped her hoof. “Besides, Spike could probably use a break”—Twilight grabbed up a new piece of parchment and began writing “Spike’s tasks for the rest of the day”—“but something tells me he’s not going to be getting one. Oh well!” Dash nodded towards the kitchen. “I’m going to go make some food for the trip while you get cleaned up or whatever.”

Twilight headed up to her room and Rainbow darted off through the library. She needed to make something she could throw together in a few seconds that was delicious, portable, and also romantic. Because that’s just what a couple as awesome as they were deserved. After getting to the kitchen, however, that quickly began to sound like a lot of work—and after a glance through the pantry and fridge revealed almost nothing at all to work with, sandwiches suddenly seemed like a happy compromise. She began tossing a few together with whatever she could find. She and Twilight were really quick-sandwich-type ponies anyway.

They’d still have to swing by Sugarcube Corner to pick up the cupcakes Dash had ordered. Of course, she’d made the order just the day before, and said she wouldn’t be needing them for several days still—but it’d probably be fine. And they were going to need the booze, as well, Dash mentally checked-off, so a stop by Sweet Apple Acres for the cider she had gotten Applejack to set aside. It was still fairly early in the afternoon, so Dash figured they’d probably be able to get out of town well before evening, which would mean they’d be getting to Cloudsdale around—Dash stopped and blinked. She was making lists again. Twilight was a bad influence on her, she thought, as a grin crept up on her and she continued with the sandwiches.

Once Rainbow had made and packed up some sandwiches and Twilight was finished up, they flew off together through Ponyville, leaving behind a rather sour assistant with a stack of tasks to do.

“Where are we going on this trip, anyway?” asked Twilight. “You never actually told me, you know.”

“Uh, I was actually thinking it could be a bit of a surprise or whatever,” Dash said quickly.

“Oh,” said Twilight, glancing over at Dash flying beside her. A little smile came to Twilight’s face. “All right.” Then her grin angled. “Out of curiosity—are you just taking me somewhere private where we can be alone together so we can make out? Because as great as that sounds, it’s also what you did the last few times you said you had an ‘awesome romantic date’ planned, and I don’t think that counts as a surprise any more.”

“What? No! It’s totally not even just that!’ Dash thought about it. “Well, I mean, that might be a part of it—but you’re totally going to be surprised this time!”

“All right, if you say so.”

“Well, I do!”

They alit in front of Sugarcube Corner, and entered to the typical Pinkie Pie greeting. Dash was sure she had popped into the bakery like that a hundred times before, and there was nothing different about this time. The same smell of pastries and chatter from the other ponies and the nearly tangible energy emanating from the pink pony behind the counter were as familiar as ever. Dash’s life as she’d known it was changing entirely in the next few days, but all their friends and the rest of Ponyville were going about their regular days as if nothing was happening. And nothing really was happening. Everything would always be there, just as it always was, whenever Dash wanted to pop in and see it.

“Ooo, the super-secret trip somewhere!” Pinkie burst when they had told her what they needed cupcakes for. “Wonderfulamazasexariffic!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Pinkie, you know, I think an extra word might’ve snuck into that portmanteau without you noticing.”

Pinkie winked at her. “It just portamanted itself in there so well, though, don’t ya think?” She laughed and then turned to the pegasus. “And speaking of portamanting, when you order something specifically for a certain day, Dashie, most ponies would be thinking that means you want it for that day and not three days before that day! You’re lucky I know that’s never what you mean, though, and also that I’m Pinkie Pie! I don’t even know a pony named Most Ponies, which is crazy, because I know pretty much everypony!”

Dash shrugged with her wings. “Yeah, I figured it’d be cool.” Then she blinked and glanced at Twilight. “Not that I was even planning stuff out what are you talking about?”

“I didn’t say anything, Rainbow,” said Twilight. Then she nudged Dash and grinned. “But now that you brought it up—aw, you’re making plans?” She brushed up against her, and her voice went low and smokey. “You know how I love it when you do that.”

Dash stubbornly ignored the excited tingle that went down her body, and shuffled her wings. “Oh quiet, you.” Twilight laughed.

Pinkie emerged from behind the counter with a box filled with an assortment of cupcakes and set it down for them to see. “So! This patent-pending assortment of cupcakes only comes with the Pinkie-promise guarantee if you Pinkie-promise-guarantee to go in the right order. That’s the important part! Okay, so—you’ll want to start with these vanilla ones, because that’s just what you do. From there you’ll definitely want the strawberry ones for a bit of an extra zip after the plain-but-still-fantastic-in-a-plain-kind-of-way vanilla, but you don’t want to blow the roof off too soon, so next you got to—”

“I think we got it, Pinks,” said Dash.

“We do?” asked Twilight. “I don’t! What kind of Pinkie-promise guarantee do you mean?”

“Silly! I mean the Pinkie-promise guarantee to get two ponies in the right and-you-know-what-I-mean-by-right mood to—”

“Yeah, okay! Definitely got it!” said Dash loudly, colour touching her face.

“Aw,” Pinkie pouted, “but the other day you were so interested in Pinkie’s super-special cupcake-aided get-two-ponies—”

“Awesome!” said Dash, sticking her hoof in Pinkie’s mouth. “Just awesome!”

Twilight laughed and wrapped her wing around Dash, pulling the nearly-blushing pegasus close beside her, giving her a wink. “Keep convincing me this super-secret romantic trip isn’t all just an excuse to get me—”

Dash blushed properly. “No! It’s totally not! ...This time! Like, it’s a real thing! All romantic and stuff!”

“—and-wrecked-manes special! (Patent pending!)” finished Pinkie as Dash removed her hoof from in front of her mouth.

“Thank you, Pinkie,” said Twilight, closing the box of cupcakes and putting them in her saddlebag. She turned to Dash, still holding her close with her wing. “But you know, I’d be fine with it either way. As long as I’m with you.” She leaned over and gave Dash a light kiss.

Dash looked like she was about to pop, despite her dismissive huff and mumbled “sappy.”

Pinkie looked at the two ponies for a minute, then sprang over the counter to wrap them both in a hug. “You two are so cute and silly and I’m going to miss you so bad!” They hugged her back for a while before she drew away. “I mean, are they even going to be able to call it Ponyville without the two of you? We might have to just call it ‘Ponville.’ You guys are so totally such a part of this town, you’re definitely worth the ‘y’!”

Dash slipped out from beneath Twilight’s wing. “Wait, what are you talking about?”

“ ‘Y’!”

“Because I—”

“She meant the letter ‘y’," Twilight cut in.

“It’s a super-important letter!” Pinkie explained as Dash stuck her hoof in her own face. “It can be a vowel or a consonant! Just like you two!”

“No, not that!” said Dash. “I meant Ponyville! Without us! And ‘u’ can’t be a consonant, you know. Ah, never mind! Like, it’s still Ponyville! Nothing’s different, right? I mean, why would you say it’s going to be different?”

“Because it totally will be!”

Dash scratched at her mane. “Well, maybe a bit—but we’ll both be back! Like, Ponyville isn’t going anywhere or anything! We’ll be back all the time! Right?”

“Yeah, we will,” said Twilight.

“I don’t know... it really will be different,” said Pinkie, giving them an unconvinced frown.

“Maybe,” said Dash, adamantly.

“You’ll have to come back lots then, if we’re going to keep the ‘y’, though, kay?” said Pinkie, seriously.

“We promise,” said Twilight.

“Good! But no matter how often you’re back, I’m still throwing a surprise party every time either of you’re here.”

“We’d be surprised if you didn’t.”

Pinkie nodded. “Well, I’m glad that’s been settled. And don’t let your little secret romance trip be so romantic and amazing and sexy-cupcake-filled-thanks-to-your-number-one-party-pony that you forget about the farewell-Dashie party tomorrow! Which is also thanks to your number-one party pony! Who is me, Pinkie Pie, in case that wasn’t clear!”

“We won’t forget,” said Dash.

After all hugging once more, they flew off. Dash couldn’t shake what Pinkie had said about Ponyville being different. Ponyville would be the same. She could come back to it whenever she wanted, and it’d always be the same. She was sure of it. She glanced over to the alicorn flying beside her. But it would be different. Dash knew she herself was leaving a gaping hole in the weather team that they’d probably need about ten pegasi to fill, and the town would be losing an amazing stunt flier that performed free shows in the form of practicing several times a week, but that was different. It was different with Twilight going. Dash could see how, with Twilight gone, it almost might feel like just Ponville.

As Dash vaguely registered touching down on the approach to Sweet Apple Acres, she saw where that line of thinking was headed, and broke away from it. It was something that was in serious danger of detracting from the excitement of becoming a Wonderbolt, and she’d nearly ended up thinking about it too many times in the last few weeks as it was. Really, it all came back around to Twilight getting those wings and becoming a princess. She was going to be spending a lot of time in Canterlot in the near future, getting a feel for how the royal stuff in Canterlot ran, to the point where Twilight realized she’d need to give up being Ponyville’s librarian altogether. There’d be a new librarian for Ponville.

“You can sulk about it all ya want, but ya know I still gotta charge full price for that cider. Got a farm to run, after all!” the farm pony standing in front of Dash said, snapping the pegasus back to where she was. Which was standing in front of Sweet Apple Acres holding a case of cider for who-knows-how-long without showing any signs of reaching for her bits.

“Oh. Yeah. All right.”

“I can pay Applejack if you want,” said Twilight.

“No, it’s cool,” said Dash, brushing her mane out of her eyes and wishing her troublesome thoughts would brush away as easily.

“You all right there, sugarcube? Ya seem a bit off.” Applejack gave her a scrutinizing look.

“What? No, I’m awesome!” Dash reached into her bag to dig out the bits. “Things are awesome. I’m a Wonderbolt now! Everything is beyond radical!” And it was, too—Dash knew it was.

Applejack raised an eyebrow as she took the bits and put them away, but let it pass. “Yeah, so we’ve heard,” she said with grin. “Practically any time ya say more than two words to anypony. Just don’t go forgettin about us once you’re all famous and all.”

“I’d never do that!” said Dash. “I don’t think I’ll be able to find a better place to nap than these apple trees, anyway. You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”

“Ah, I never thought that for a second.” She turned to Twilight. “And don’t you go forgettin about us neither, there, Your Worshipfulness,” said Applejack with a wink.

“AJ,” Twilight said with a sigh, but a touch of a grin, “I’d really appreciate it if you just called me Twilight—I would say ‘like you usually do,’ but that would imply that you actually use my name with greater frequency than you do some blend of various other—often completely inaccurate—honorifics.”

“Well I can’t rightly disobey the rulings of Her Very Own Majesty, now, can I?” The farmer was grinning.

“It’s nothing but demands from our librarian princess,” said Dash with a faux-harrowing sigh.

“Ah, now you’d be the pony to get the brunt of it, to be sure,” said AJ, with the image of sympathy plastered over her amusement. “I can only image the kinda stuff she makes ya do.”

“No,” said Dash, with a completely different kind of grin, “I really doubt you can.”

Both ponies shared a laugh while Twilight rolled her eyes.

The grin fell away from Applejack’s face after a moment, and she sighed. “I am gonna miss you two somethin fierce, though.”

“Aw, you’re not gonna get all sappy on us, are you?” Dash bopped her on the shoulder. “At least save it for my going-away party!”

“Well, I suppose I can do that, at least,” said Applejack, and she adjusted her hat. “Anyway, I reckon I kept y’all long enough. From the looks of it, the Princess and her consort got some kinda plans to get on with, am I wrong?”

“Wha—consort?” Dash burst.

Applejack laughed. “Well, I figure there’s gonna be a fair amount of consortin goin on, wherever it is you’re off to.”

“Actually, Applejack, saying Dash is a consort would imply she shares the same rank as me, which isn’t accurate,” Twilight informed them. Then she put on an angled grin. “And let me assure you, she can be the picture of subservience. For my every whim.”

“What?” said Dash. “When am I ever—oh, wait, okay.” She blushed more than a little.

Applejack and Twilight shared a laugh at Dash’s expense.

The pegasus packed up the bottles of cider into her saddlebags, and Applejack smiled at them as they prepared to leave.

“Seriously though, it ain’t gonna be the same Ponyville without the two of you.”

Dash snapped up her head to look at her. “What? Yeah, it will! Why does everypony keep saying that? It totally will!”

“We’ll come back all the time, we promise,” said Twilight.

“Yeah! It’ll be fine! I mean, Twilight can teleport between here and Canterlot—”

“Well, not quite that far, Dash,” Twilight cut in.

“—and I can break the sound barrier! I can fly between Cloudsdale and Ponyville in just a couple seconds. ”

“Never mind the speed of sound, you’d be approaching the speed of light if you could make it in that kind of time.”

“Whatever! You know what I mean!”

AJ smiled at the two of them and nodded. “Yeah, I get it. I guess we’ll all be all right somehow, even with all that distance, won’t we?”

“Definitely!” said Dash.

The farm pony turned and walked back to the farmhouse. She returned with a bag of apples. “Here, why don’t the two of you take a few on the house. I reckon—” she began, but as she came around the corner of the barn, she realized the two winged ponies were already gone. She sighed, but chuckled to herself as she went back inside.

They had the sky to themselves as the two ponies flew north in the direction of Cloudsdale. Rainbow Dash cast a glance over at Twilight as they flew, and her eyes were drawn to her large wings as they flapped to keep pace beside her. They were a fair bit larger than her own, a fact that uncomfortably turned something inside her. She wasn’t exactly jealous, at least not all the time—she knew there were things she did routinely as a stunt flier that would be quite a bit more difficult with bigger wings—but she still wasn’t sure she was completely okay with the fact, anyway. It was true that they were pretty sexy, so there was that, but the idea of Twilight’s wings in general was something that troubled her at times.

Dash shook her head, trying to clear away those thoughts. She and Twilight could fly together, and that was awesome. It was one of the best things Dash could imagine. Twilight could leap in the air and follow her whenever she had the whim to take off and go somewhere. Though, as much as Twilight could spring into the air to follow Dash, she was just as capable of taking off in a completely different direction.

Cloudsdale came into view, and Dash angled off their heading to skirt around the edge of it. Twilight banked to stay along side Dash—at least for today they were still headed in the same direction.

“I thought we were going to Cloudsdale,” said Twilight as she came up alongside her.

“No, we’re going north of Cloudsdale, actually.”

“Oh?”

“You’ll figure it out when we get there. Probably. Anyway, I thought we should avoid going through the city. I’m sort of the talk of the town right now. You know—Wonderbolts’ newest recruit, the rainboom, that kind of thing.”

Twilight smiled and nodded, and they kept flying. Most ponies would start rolling their eyes when Dash got talking about her fame and accomplishments, and would probably even throw ‘bragging’ in there to describe what she was doing, but Twilight never did. Dash was just stating facts, and Twilight had no problem with facts. And no matter what Dash said about herself, there was no way it would sound as if she thought she could ever put herself above alicorn princess. It was never a competition between the two of them, and something about that was comforting to Dash, in a way.

The two ponies circled around Cloudsdale and set off north from the other side of it. As they rounded the city, the view of sky to the north stood in sharp contrast to the clustered bustle behind them. The cloud homes tapered off, giving way to a sparsely dotted skyline of little lights from the few homes beyond the city. The sparse patches of clouds weren’t enough to obstruct the hazy forms of the crystal mountains barely peeking above the horizon, glittering in the sun’s setting light.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been on the northern edge of Cloudsdale like this, come to think of it,” said Twilight.

“Yeah? My parents would take me out this way sometimes as a filly. There are a few old cloud ruins from way back that are pretty awesome.”

“Oh! Is that where we’re headed?” asked Twilight, her eyes lighting up.

Rainbow laughed. “No, sorry. You can only visit them at certain times, and some only on guided tours.”

“Ah, of course. The Preservation of Ancient Clouds Act.”

Rainbow smiled and glanced over at her. “We could check them out another time, if you want.”

“Yeah! That would be great! I’ve read a lot about them!”

“Of course you have. Yeah, we’ll come back out here sometime, then.” It was something concrete to look at in the future where both of them were in the same place, and a smile touched Dash’s face. Still, the fact that it was a plan locked it into a sort of rigidity that pulled everything back a bit. Her smile fell as it began pulling her back down to the line of thinking she had been trying to evade.

Twilight resumed planning out-loud exactly what she was going to need to bring to Canterlot, as she had been doing a moment before, and Rainbow pushed away her thoughts in favour of listening to Twilight list things. She loved just hearing Twilight’s voice, but the alicorn would always get mad at her for not paying attention if she was talking about stuff that Dash was actually supposed to be listening to. Making lists was the exception to this, because Twilight just liked listing things, and Rainbow had come to realize Twilight was happy to have a pony she could list things at, whether or not they were actually paying attention.

And it made Dash feel better. Listening to a Princess of Equestria, former pupil to Princess Celestia, reasoning whether or not she should pack a toothbrush or just buy a new one in Canterlot had that effect on her.

“Are we almost there?” asked Twilight after a time. The sky had the last trace of light in it, and there were next to no clouds left in the sky that far north of the city. A few specks of light could still be seen from cloud homes, but they were getting lost in the emerging stars as the light died away. The mountain-crested horizon spread out endlessly, the ground lying flat from there to the mountains far in the distance. The sky stretched up overhead—the horizon line seemed lower than it often did, with the sky taking up more than it’s share of space.

An easy grin came to Dash’s face. “Yeah, anywhere here should do.”

“What?” said Twilight, her eyebrows coming together. “I thought this was some sort of secret amazing place we were going.” Twilight looked to the northern horizon. “I mean, this is rather spectacular, but you know what I mean.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Well, you’ll figure it out pretty soon. Hey, look, that cloud there will do.”

The pegasus flew over to a lone cloud in the empty sky, and the alicorn followed. They were not more than specks in the massive sky, surrounded by endless space stretching out around and above them.

Dash took off her bag and began unpacking it. “How about a light?” she prompted. Twilight produced a ball of light which settled down at the center of their cloud, easily lighting the entire surface of it. “Maybe not quite so bright.” Dash glanced to the side, a light blush creeping up on her. “Uh, more like a candle or whatever?”

Twilight smiled, and the light dimmed until it cast a soft glow. She considered it for another moment, then tilted her head to the side, and the light started flickering gently. She straightened her head again, and the light shifted from a blue to an orange glow.

“Wow,” said Dash, “that’s really good.”

“What’s the use of being an all-powerful alicorn ruler and the very element of magic if I can’t make a really good speck of light, right?”

“Okay, Grand Mistress of Magic, open these bottles of cider next.”

They pulled out the rest of the provisions that they had brought, and Dash grabbed a strawberry cupcake and began eating it.

“Dash, you’re voiding the Pinkie-promise guarantee,” said Twilight. “Not to mention I don’t think cupcakes and cider will—”

Dash took a swig out of her bottle of cider, then grimaced. “Twilight, take a letter. ‘Dear Princess Twilight, today I have learned that, though cider and cupcakes are two of the best things ever, they should never be mixed. This is a metaphor for friendship because—’ ”

Twilight laughed, despite trying to level an unimpressed look at Dash. “Oh, very funny.”

“You should make a law that says AJ has to put a warning label on her cider. That falls under your princess duties right?”

“I’ll definitely look into that.”

“Good. Because this is a real problem. Ponies everywhere could be having bad cider-and-cupcakes experiences as we speak. I’d say this is a national emergency.”

“Duly noted, and taken into consideration.”

“You know, dating a princess is pretty great. Your brother definitely had the right idea. Remind me to give him a hoof-bump next time I see him.”

“Anything else you’d like your princess to do for you?”

“I could totally go for one of those sandwiches right now.”

The two ponies grinned at each other as Twilight floated a sandwich over to Dash, which went much better with the cider than did the cupcake.

“So when do I find out what this amazing surprise is?” asked Twilight.

“Pretty soon, I think. Actually, the real surprise is that you haven’t figured it out yet,” she said around her sandwich. “You and Princess Celestia must have been talking about what’s going on with the sun right now.” She finished off the last of her cider.

“You mean the increase in solar wind that we’ve been having for the last few weeks? How do you know about that?”

“Being in the know about weather stuff, and all that.” Dash picked up a new bottle of cider and held it imploringly out at Twilight. The alicorn popped the cap off for the pegasus with her magic. “Totally unrelated question: what would you suppose the coordinates of our current position are?”

Twilight blinked. “You mean the latitude and longitude? Well, we’re about a half-hour pretty much due north from Cloudsdale, we’re well past the edge of the Cloudsdale Regional Municipality—ah, I wish I had my sextant—”

“I don’t know what that is—but so do I.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Well, if I had to guess, I’d say around fifty-two degrees and fifteen minutes north by one-thirteen degrees and forty-five minutes west.”

“Uh, yeah, actually. Wow, Twi, that’s kind of scary.”

“What’s that have to do with the—oh. More than fifty degrees north and the—” Twilight’s face lit up.

“There you go,” Dash smiled.

Twilight scrambled around though her saddle bags. “Oh no, I didn’t bring my parchment or—”

“Nope! None of that. No notes. Just watching.” She tilted her head. “And maybe a little cuddling.”

Twilight hesitated a moment, then closed her bags. She smiled and shuffled closer to Dash. The pegasus put her wing around Twilight.

“So yeah,” Dash said, “ever see them before?”

“No, never!”

“Really? Crazy! My parents took me to see it a couple times. My dad was in weather, so he always knew when they’d be on.”

Finishing her second bottle of cider, Dash took one last bite of sandwich to clear her palate, and started on the cupcakes again. Twilight had been eating her share already, and in the specific order Pinkie had specified, as well.

They sat enjoying the cupcakes for a while. When they were done, Twilight leaned her head against Dash’s shoulder, nestling in underneath Dash’s wing. Dash liked it better with her wing around Twilight. When the alicorn wrapped her wing around her, it was nice, but she felt a bit too small underneath her larger wings.

“We’re not going to be able to do stuff like this whenever we feel like it anymore.” Dash said.

“What?” Twilight looked up at her. “What do you mean? Yes we will.”

“I mean—they’ll be plans. We’ll both have plans all the time. And this kind of thing... will be a plan.”

“So we’ll plan things. Even this, now, was a plan. You planned it all out.”

“No, I mean—well, yeah, I did a bit, but...” she trailed off. Dash ran a hoof through her mane. “I won’t be able to crash into the library and end up going somewhere amazing with you.”

“Oh. Well, I guess not. We’ll figure out the amazing things ahead of time.”

Twilight wasn’t getting it. Dash didn’t know exactly how she could say it to her, or even what it was she was trying to say. It was putting Twilight at a wing’s length and accepting that the distance was going to affect their lives. She knew in her head that the distance was going to be there, but she refused to let it affect her. She’d been keeping it off at every turn for the past few weeks, and though it was looming closer than ever, it was easily held at bay with Twilight so close beside her.

Twilight gave a soft gasp and looked up, putting out their little light on the cloud. Dash followed her gaze upwards. Among the star-covered night sky, a ribbon of colour was shimmering its way into being perceptible. The green haze shifted, as if one was underwater looking up at sunlight filtering down through the surface in super-slow motion.

Dash could feel the feathers of Twilight’s wing against her own, the warmth of her pressed up against her side. Soon Twilight would be in Canterlot and she in Cloudsdale, but with the nearness of Twilight, the distance felt as far away as the ethereal brilliance of the aurora above the sky at that moment.

Whenever Dash had wanted to be around Twilight, or touch her, or kiss her, she hadn’t needed to think twice about it, and had just shown up at the library at any time of the day or night. It’d been such a part of her everyday for so long that it wasn’t something she had ever really thought about, to the point where she could recall worrying, at some now-inconceivable time in the past, that Twilight might have been taking up too much of her time that should be spent on things like practicing her tricks.

She remembered the fear she felt, back near the beginning of their relationship, that Twilight might be tying her down—keeping Dash away from things that were important to her. As she sat beside Twilight, she couldn’t keep the idea from creeping into her head that she might’ve had it backwards until that exact moment.

Both the distance and what was truly the cause of it caught up with her and ripped her from where she was without a moment’s warning. She was plummeting down into the depths of it with nothing to grab onto.

Dash wrapped her forelegs around Twilight and buried her face in her mane. The other pony was thrown off balance and gave a yelp as they toppled over onto the cloud.

“Dash!” cried Twilight. “What—hey!” Dash rolled on top of Twilight, pinning her down as she kissed her.

“Quiet,” Dash said between kisses. “You’re the one leaving me to go be a princess.”

“I’m leaving you?” Twilight managed to get out around Dash’s passionate assault. “You’re the one—mmff—” Twilight was cut off. She attempted to roll to the side to escape from beneath the pegasus, but Dash held her firmly. “Okay!” The alicorn’s horn lit up, and with a flash she was on top of the pegasus. She pinned down Dash’s wings with her larger ones, and pressed her hooves to the other mare’s shoulders. “Down, girl! You’re the one going off to become a Wonderbolt! I’m not even permanently moving away from Ponyville!”

“It’s different. That’s different. You’re going to be doing official royal stuff. I can’t come visit you whenever! It’s—I’m not okay with that!”

“You’re going to be training and touring and stuff! That’s no different at all! Anyway, it doesn’t matter, we’ll see each other all the time, despite that. It’ll be fine.”

“Twilight, you can’t just say it and then act like that makes it true. We’re going to be far apart and I won’t be able to see you all the time! What’s fine about that? That’s not fine!”

Twilight sighed and ran her hoof along the side of Dash’s face. “I’m not being sent to the moon, you know. I don’t see why you’re making such a big deal about this all of a sudden.”

“You can’t see why I—? Twilight! It’s—we’re going to... argh! You can’t just make a list and a plan and have that make everything be fine. It’s like you haven’t even thought about what it’s going to be like!”

“Of course I have! But these are both things in our lives we have to do, so we’re going to make things work between us while we’re doing those things. We’ll be able to. You’re overreacting.”

“You’re... underreacting! I can’t—it’s like...” Rainbow broke off and looked to the side. “Do you even care?”

“Rainbow Dash! Look at me!” Rainbow didn’t turn her head, so Twilight put her hoof to Rainbow’s cheek and turned her head back to face her. “That’s a stupid thing to say! Of course I care. I’m just confident we can make it work!”

“Whatever. You don’t get it. Everything’s all order and logic in your head. You’ve made a plan, so now there’s nothing to worry about, right? Well, a plan’s not going to make this better.” With a flick of her wing, she toppled Twilight off of her, and Dash rolled to the other side.

“Oh, come on,” Twilight said, sitting up. “Really? You’re going to be like this?”

Dash didn’t say anything.

“I have no idea what you’re suddenly upset about.”

“Obviously.”

“Then say it in a way I can understand!”

“No point.”

Twilight let out a frustrated huff. “Come on. Talk to me, Dash.”

There was no reply from the pegasus.

After a moment, a glint came into Twilight’s eye. “Well, you leave me no choice. I’ll have to beg. I’ll do it. Don’t think I won’t!” Dash did nothing more than lay there, so the alicorn moved closer and reached over to run her hoof through Dash’s mane. She lowered her voice to a whisper and leaned in close. “Please, Rainbow Dash?” She continued stroking her mane. “Please, please, please?”

Eliciting no response, she frowned and drew her hoof along the side of the pegasus lying beside her, brushed over her wing, and trailed across her cutie mark. Dash twitched at the contact. “All right, last chance to do this peacefully. Please?”

The pony next to her remained steadfast. “Well, if that’s the way it’s going to be...” Twilight extended her wing out to stroke it along Dash’s flank, and then continued to trail it down her leg, and Dash flinched away with a grunt. Grinning, she leaned in and nipped at Dash’s ear. “Come on Dash. Dashie,” she cooed, running her foreleg along the length of Dash’s wing, and the pegasus let slip a short moan. She stroked Dash’s flank once more with her feathers, and Dash’s wings rustled, just barely keeping closed. “Oh, do you like that?” Twilight crooned.

“Oh, shut up,” Dash snapped, turning over to shoot Twilight a glare, though with a flush touching her cheeks. She flopped back over. “You know all the things I like.”

“Yeah.” Twilight nuzzled up against her. “Are you going to talk to me yet?”

She rustled her wings. “Nope.”

Twilight bit down on Dash’s ear and pressed her hoof to the base of Dash’s wing. Rainbow let out a throaty grunt and her wings snapped out in a burst of arousal.

“You’re not going to win this,” Twilight said matter-of-factly. She proceeded to run her mouth along the length of Dash’s firmly outstretched wing, preening her far slower and with much more contact than practical preening required.

Dash panted through her mouth that wouldn’t stay closed, holding out for nearly half a minute before a needy whine escaped her and she spun around to wrap her forelegs around Twilight’s neck and kiss her wildly. Twilight let out a sigh as she let Dash roll on top of her. Rainbow ran her hooves through Twilight’s mane as they kissed, and then down to stroke her wings which were also spread stiffly outwards.

Dash broke away, leaning over Twilight, both of them breathing heavily atop the lone cloud in the night sky. The moments stretched on as the pegasus said nothing, the breaths they took the only thing keeping time in the darkness.

“I’m scared, okay?” Rainbow said, and the two of them were silent as they lay in the vast, empty sky, the aurora glimmering above them. “I’m scared that later you’re going to realize how much it sucks being apart, and you’ll blame me because I went to join the Wonderbolts. Or maybe that’s not quite it.” The pegasus looked to the side. Their sound of their breathing was the only thing that cut through the encompassing quiet. “I’m scared we’re going to drift apart and that it’s going to be my fault because I can’t come see you.”

Twilight ran her hoof down Rainbow’s chest. “We’ll see each other lots. I’ll come see you. That won’t happen. I’ll come see you every week.”

Dash snapped her head around to give Twilight a burning look. “That definitely won’t be enough. I’ll want to see you every day. Every hour.”

Twilight matched Dash’s look. “I’ll come whenever I can. So will you. We’ll write letters. I can set up a system like dragon fire.”

“It better not go through Spike. I’d make the guy sick with how many letters you’re going to get from me.”

“Things will be okay. Really. And I’m not going to let you drift away from me, so don’t even think about trying it.”

Rainbow fell down into kiss, Twilight wrapping her hooves around her, firmly locking them together. Rainbow rolled over, lying down beside Twilight. They lay on their sides holding each other. “We’re going to be okay?” Rainbow asked.

“Yes. We’ll be fine.”

“For how long?”

“For as long as we need to be.”

Rainbow sighed, and leaned in to rest her forehead against Twilight’s. She could feel Twilight’s breath on her nose. “Well, if you’re totally sure—then okay. I will go be a Wonderbolt.”

Twilight blinked and then drew back. “Wait—that’s what this was about? You were considering turning down—Dash, it’s your dream!”

“This is kind of a dream, too.”

Twilight’s mouth stayed open for a moment, but nothing came out. She let out a breath. “That was really sappy,” she said, finally.

“Yeah. But I’m serious.”

“You’d choose me over—?”

“Yeah. If you asked me right now, I really would.”

Twilight held Rainbow’s gaze. A part of Dash wished Twilight would ask her to do it. She knew there’d be days where she would regret not joining the Wonderbolts—probably a lot of days—but at that moment she couldn’t believe that it wouldn’t still be worth it.

“Thanks,” Twilight said after a time. “That means more than I can say. But you’re not allowed to.” She bumped Dash on the chest with a hoof. “Being a Wonderbolt is something you have to do, Rainbow Dash. Equestria can’t be denied the greatest flier it’s ever seen, even if it was for the deepest desires of an alicorn princess. But the alicorn princess doesn’t mind at all. And it wouldn’t make a difference anyway—I’d still have to go be a princess, and we’d still have all the same issues. May as well be a Wonderbolt.”

“Are you sure?” asked Dash, picking up Twilight’s tone. “I could come to Canterlot and be your consort. Or wait, you said that comes with all kinds of titles attached to it. Maybe I’ll just be your personal mareservant.” Dash put on an angled grin. “I’d be there all the time, just waiting to serve you in any way you could possibly dream up.” Dash blinked as she thought about that. “Oh, except you’d probably just make me do all kinds of work and endlessly organize stuff. I mean, that’s what you have Spike for. How about I just be your concubine? I’ll lie around and wait for you to say you want to have sex with me.”

Twilight laughed. “That... is rather tempting. But no. You still have to be a Wonderbolt.”

Everything but honesty dropped away from Dash’s expression for a moment. “Thanks,” she whispered, and gave Twilight a quick kiss. When she pulled back, she had a glint in her eye again. “If my princess orders me to, I guess there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Well, your princess does. And anyway, you already pretty much do that.”

“What?”

“That ‘lying around, waiting for me to want to have sex’ thing.”

“Oh.” Dash tilted her head. “Yeah, pretty much.”

Twilight leaned in close, her mouth brushing against Dash’s ear. “Incidentally, this may be one of those times.”

They met in a kiss, their bodies pressing together as they lay on the cloud in the expansive sky. The last figments of colour from the aurora hung above them.

“We’re two of the most amazing ponies in Equestria,” Twilight said quietly, her lips barely parting from Dash’s. “We can cover whatever distance comes between us.”

“Yeah,” said Rainbow. She pulled Twilight forwards to meet her lips again, and she knew “being fine” wasn’t something they’d sit around and hope would happen—it was something they’d fly out and catch for themselves.

Author's Notes:

Done, in part, for the Intelligent Shipping Group's Variety is the Spice of Life Challenge. 'A date' for the prompt.